A SneakerCon shoes exhibition held in Shanghai in May Photo: IC

Sneakers have become the latest target of speculative capital in China after cryptocurrencies and Moutai liquor, with their prices being pushed to irrational highs.

A pair of Air Jordan 1 sneakers were priced at 5,039 yuan ($704.8) on Monday as shown in DU, the biggest e-commerce platform for sneaker sales -- and also the first app that claims to differentiate between genuine and fake sneakers in China. So far, 10,797 paid orders have been logged for the footwear.

When this style was put on sale via DU on August 17, the price was just 1,299 yuan.

Wan Kun, a former employee at sneaker information platform flightclub.cn, told the Global Times on Monday that at least half of the buyers on DU are hired by speculators, not collectors.

"A friend of mine who's been involved in investing in the sneaker circle can earn up to 20,000 yuan per month," said Wan.

China has been a frontier in supporting the popular sneaker culture over recent years. Brands like Air Jordan, Nike and Adidas have plenty of followers, especially for their classic and fashionable styles. Air Jordan is part of the Nike family.

The sneaker market even generates its own indexes by brand, such as the Air Jordan index, Adidas index and Nike index. 

On August 19, among the top 100 styles, the 26 hottest ones yielded total transactions of 450 million yuan. That figure exceeded transactions for 9,431 companies in China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations, also known as the "new third board" on that day, media reports said.

It's almost impossible to know how many pairs of Air Jordan sneakers are sold in China. According to sportswear shopping site shihuo.cn, there were 815 different color mixes for Air Jordan 1 shoes available on the platform and more than 60,000 pairs were sold within one month.

"However, sneaker speculation is not related to history or culture. It's just a way to make money," said Wan, adding that middle-school students are also influenced by the trend. These kids believe that anyone who wears special, expensive sneakers are superior to others.

In 2014, most sneakers could be sold at around 1,000 yuan per pair, but now the market is driven by hype and needs normalization, according to Wan.

In a survey on Monday, social media platform Weibo asked users if they were willing to pay multiple times the price of a pair of popular sneakers. Among the respondents, 28,000 said it wouldn't be worth it, while only 4,677 respondents said yes.